5 ways to come up with better solutions
One of my favourite things to hear a client say is “I never thought of it that way.” Often our stories are so worn in that we don’t even entertain the idea that there could be an alternative narrative. Thankfully we can train ourselves to be able to come up with multiple, creative possibilities.
Thinking creatively isn’t just reserved for artists or “creatives” it can help all of us come up with better solutions to problems we might be facing personally or at work, it also widens our perspectives and allows us to see that there can be multiple paths that take us where we want to go.
Here are 5 exercises to try:
Alternative Uses, choose any object and come up with 10 alternative uses. Once you’ve practiced this for a while, take it to the next level by setting a one minute timer.
Page, line, word, have someone shout out three numbers, then open a book, the first number is the page, second number is the line and third is the word. Use the word you land on and come up with five alternative words to it
Micro Speech, You have two minutes to come up with a speech that follows the format of Introduction, main body, and conclusion, points given for creativity and originality
Choose Your Own Adventure, another great group activity. Open any book, read out the first paragraph than you complete the story. If you are alone you could try this every day, so over a week you will end up with seven different story endings.
Incomplete Figure Drawing (AKA Mr Squiggle), download the line drawings I’ve posted and use them to complete a drawing, this is a fun one to do with a group so you can see what everyone comes up with.
